UFC Reebok Deal and WMMA

UFC bantamweight fighter Meisha Tate spoke out about the UFC Reebok deal on the Bloody Elbow.

The UFC Reebok deal is a six year minimum deal that extends until 2020 making Rebook the official UFC apparel and footwear supplier for every fight week. Compensation from the UFC is broken down in Tiers, based on the number of fights each fighter has as seen below:

Since WMMA has only been around for a few years, women fighters are at a severe disadvantage with the tier. Women fighters do not have the same number of fights as the men do, since WMMA was just introduced.

Similar to many other UFC stars, Tate will be taking a major paycut; she states that she will be losing 80-90% of what she typically recieves in sponsorships.

“I think it’s a little bit unfair for Women’s Mixed Martial Arts because we’ve barely been in the UFC,” Tate says. “We don’t have the same number of fights as the guys do. The UFC has been around a long time, but Women’s MMA in the UFC has been there for a little over two years so it’s not fair.”

Tate says will be losing fifty-five to sixty thousand dollars in sponsorship dollars each fight since she falls in the second tier making only $5,000 a fight. She hopes that the UFC is going to try to offset the change, and that there may be more perks that fighters do not know about yet. Tate is hoping something will change before the deal is officially implemented on July 15th.